My thoughts and tips for first-time GamesMasters - Part 1

I have always intended writing and posting up my thoughts and tips on GMing.  Why?  because I know as a GM how daunting the prospect of GMing can be to any gamer and I honestly believe that a few helpful tips and suggestions from experienced GMs can make all the difference.  I should stress that what will follow in the next few posts are not absolutes, merely my thoughts on the subject and they can be taken or ignored, in whole or in part, as you see fit.  I will also, as is the way of things, give direct examples to highlight why I have reached the conclusions I have.

Ultimately what I want to do is to encourage other players, who are considering trying to GM a game, that it is worth having a crack at.  It is a daunting task that first game but if you follow my advice or at least take it under advisement, I think you will find the first time a lot easier than you might have thought

Part 1 - before you even begin a session

So you have decided you are going to have a go at GMing.  You've been a player for a while and want to have a shot at refeering.  But given everything that a GM has to contend with it looks very difficult.  is it?  Answer is yes and no.  certainly inexperience at GMing plays a factor in that difficulty, as do the nature of your players (I'll deal with this in one of the subsequent posts on this topic) but these can be at least alleviated to some extent if you have done your homework beforehand.

So firstly, choose the right system for you.  Preferably the system should be one that is pretty simple to use with straightforward mechanics.  I say this as it can help beginning GM's if they don't have to worry about extensive record keeping first time out.  Also, choose a game you happen to like especially if its in a genre you happen to enjoy.  If you like sword and sorcery, use a fantasy system you are comfortable with.  If sci-fi is more your passion, then go with a sci-fi game.

As an example, and one I will use many times over the course of these blog posts, I will mention my friend Alan, who decided as his first ever attempt at GMing to run a dungeon bash using the Palladium Fantasy RPG (this was back in the mid 90's).  Now personally, I would have used something more basic like Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, as the Palladium rules are far more in-depth and require more record keeping than old D&D.  However, although Alan did make some fundamental errors that night (more on that later) the one definitive thing he got right was his choice of system.  Why?  because it was a system he was completely comfortable with and knew like the back of his hand.  That it wasn't as simplistic as other game rules he could have used he used a system he knew well and that was the right choice for him.

So when I say simple by all means take the easiest system mechanics wise you can find but if there is a system that you know very well and are comfortable with, even if it is a more complex system, then go with that.  However do try to find a happy medium between rules complexity and necessity for a 1st time game.  Palladium may have suited Alan but had he used another system like RoleMaster or Runequest I think that would have been the wrong choice, due to the amount of record keeping and tables involved.

One thing I would say to any beginning GM is that no matter if it is your favourite genre or not, it is best that horror not be attempted by a novice.  Horror relies far more on a GM creating the proper atmosphere (I've been GMing for 25 years and I've never quite managed that atmosphere yet although I've come close a few times).  It is more than anything a matter of the GM being able to be so comfortable with their rules and the scenario that they can settle back and concentrate purely on mood.  This is not something that novice GMs are really able to do, especially as they have so much else they have to consider as well.  So my advice is get some experience as a GM first, then have a crack at running a horror game.

With regards to your scenario that you choose to use, my advice is keep it straightforward.  For a fantasy game, run a dungeon bash.  Sci-fi and other genres have their own variants.  The goal is to keep the game straightforward and therefore manageable.  That doesn't mean that you can't have lots of traps and monsters but keep the game itself down to its bare bones 9which is why dungeoneering works well as it all takes place in one locale with little room for things to go wrong for a Gm with players doing the oddest things (again more on this later).  Player-Characters should be level 1.  Why?  This is for two reasons.  Firstly it means that special abilities and powers that a GM would have to keep track of are far less likely to be available to characters of 1st level allowing for less headaches for a 1st time GM.  Secondly it means you can avoid some of the more complex villains and monsters that a game may have purely because they are designed with higher level characters in mind.  Again this keeps things simple and straightforward for the new GM to keep a track of.

Back to my friend Alan, and the first 2 mistakes he made in his game.  The players that he had were all experienced players and Alan, believing they would not play minute characters, gave us characters that were not only mid-level for the system (5th-6th level out of 15) but he also created some of them as multi-class characters.  This meant that instead of 5 very simple 1st level characters to contend with he was dealing with 5 reasonably powerful characters with lots of spells, skills and abilities to count on.  This meant his scenario was already in trouble as he didn't keep it straightforward.  His mistake here was believing that experienced players would never play 1st level characters.  The answer is of course they will, especially if they know its the GMs first time as a GM.  Their experience doesn't demand that they be given higher level characters, as if giving them 1st level characters demeaned them.  Their experience would show through with how they then played those characters.  True experienced players will take 1st level characters for a beginning GMs game, and so will yours.  For that reason I would also say never try and GM using people's standing characters in an ongoing campaign, have them make up new characters or make them yourself.

And so we come up to the subject of characters.  As i said above, either make them yourself or have players make them with you there to observe.  At the start make sure that you tell players of any restrictions to character races or classes or abilities you are imposing.  This comes under "House Rules" and I will deal with this specifically in the next blog.

As an example I was asked to create a character for a superhero game (it was using either Marvel Superheroes or the HERO system, I can't remember which).  The GM for the game, Carl, took me right through character generation as we sorted out what powers my character had.  To be fair my character had a vast array of different powers but Carl said nothing until the end, after the character had been made.  Then he talked about needing to change the elements of the character to make the powers more uniform as the character was meant to be a mutant.  This was badly handled by him.  What he should have said, right from the start, was that the characters in his game were going to be mutants and we could have, as character generation went on, created a character with a uniform set of powers that would have been more consistent. But he didn't and it was a waste of a character as he couldnt be used.  Moral of the tale:  if you have restrictions (no elves in a game or no Wookiees or no Dragons (yes my Falkenstein players no that restriction well) then ensure your players know that from the off, rather than only telling them after the character is created.

Also, and the example I'm about to use is a cock-up of my own, ensure that when dealing with player's equipment lists that you double check them to see there are no unreasonable items.  For example, I ran a game of Dark Conspiracy (a near future horror game) in which all the characters were on a coach that got abandoned in an old Wild West town and were besieged by spirits and zombies of the old townsfolk and gunslingers and such.  All of a sudden one character stood on the roof of the saloon, observing the horde of zombies marching slowly down the main street towards their building, and fired a LAW rocket at them.  This rocket he had bought and placed in his equipment list and had I seen it it would have been disallowed but as i hadn't seen it I left it there.  Given that the error was mine I couldn't then disqualify the weapon at that moment so instead of a big old shoot out as I had planned, most of the antagonists were destroyed in one well placed rocket blast.  So please do double check equipment lists, both for items that can't be afforded or owned and for items that they simply shouldnt have.

So the scenario is written the characters are done.  Now its time to play.  On to Part 2.